THEFT of fuel is rocketing as the price of oil continues to soar.

Police are warning people to be extra vigilant as the theft of fuel from vehicles in Dorset has almost tripled in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year.

The number of people who are driving off with out paying at garages and service stations has almost doubled in the same period.

Such crime is likely to increase if the price of fuel continues to rise.

The average price for a litre of diesel in the UK has broken the £6 a gallon mark for the first time - the equivalent of 131.9p a litre - and latest predictions are that petrol is expected to increase to up to £1.32 a litre with diesel rising to £1.47 this summer.

A police spokesman said: "People who store fuel or have several vehicles parked in a yard should be extra vigilant.

"Anything suspicious should be reported to the police.

"There may be a misapprehension that the police do not take this kind of theft seriously, but we need information from the public to build up a pattern which may lead to us catching those responsible."

She added that details of any suspicious vehicles should be reported to the police.

Figures show that between January and April last year there were 33 reports of thefts of fuel from vehicles either by siphoning or drilling in to tanks. This year there were 92, with 10 cars targeted last year and 49 this year.

Last year there were 29 reports of of fuel theft on domestic, commercial and public premises - in the same period this year there were 40 thefts. The figures include 15 more incidents of theft of heating fuel this year compared to last.

Dorset Police are investigating five reports of fuel theft this week alone.

The Dorset Wildlife Trust in Corfe Mullen reported a man attempting to syphon fuel from vehicles using a hose pipe on Monday evening.

Diesel was stolen from Poole Boat Performance Unit on Holton Heath trading park overnight on Thursday and from a lorry parked at some roadworks on Ringwood Road in Ringwood over the weekend.

A tank of fuel was also taken from a lorry on the Ferndown Industrial Estate.

And 1,000 litres of heating oil were taken from a tank at a farm on the Dorset/Devon border overnight on Thursday.

Nationally, Rosemary Dove, 68, died while reporting theft of red diesel from her farm in County Durham.